Dynamic Assessment Of Sustainable Development In Suzhou On Ecological Footprint

The fast promotion of industrialization and urbanization in China has brought about serious environmental problems while accelerate population growth and economic development.It has caused great damage to the further development of social economy as well as to the physical and mental health of human.Therefore,the application of scientific methods aiming to explore the road of sustainable development of society is of great realistic significance.Ecological footprint method,as a scientific method of eco-environmental load evaluation is intuitive and convenient,which assesses the sustainable development capability of regional ecosystems by transforming all kinds of resources and energy needed for regional economic development and human living into corresponding land area,has been widely recognized and used in the world.The paper takes the period from 2005 to 2014 as the research object to form a dynamical evaluation of the ecological footprint of Suzhou.From the perspective of the time,the ecological footprint of Suzhou declined in this decade but the ecological carrying capacity decreased greatly,which led to an expanding ecological deficit of Suzhou.From the perspective of the space,the paper divides Suzhou City into six areas,including urban district,Wujiang,Changshu,Kunshan,Zhangjiagang,and Taicang,then makes a comparison and analysis on the capacity of the sustainable development reflected in the spatial distribution of Suzhou,and indicates that the capacity of sustainable development is relatively strong in urban district and Kunshan,Taicang is the weakest in all areas.Simultaneously,the paper introduces the ecological footprint per ten thousand GDP,ecological stress index,eco-economic development capacity index,ecological diversity index and land carrying capacity coordination coefficient to evaluate the sustainable development condition of Suzhou,and the results show that though the resources use efficiency has increased and the ecological pressure indexhas declined,the overall irrational ecological footprint consumption structure,the tight land carrying capacity,the increasingly declined eco-economic development capacity,the sustainable development capacity to be further strengthened are presented in Suzhou.On this basis,the paper selects STIRPAT model to explore the ecological footprint's influencing factors in Suzhou,and comes to a conclusion that demographic factor,economic factor has a positive correlation with the ecological footprint,and has a greater effect,but scientific and technological level has a negative correlation with the ecological footprint and has a smaller effect.Based on the above research results,in combination with the actual state of development,the paper proposes the corresponding suggestions and countermeasures on how to reduce the ecological deficit,reduce the burden of ecological carrying capacity and improve the sustainable development capacity of Suzhou City from the aspects of population,economy,science and technology,land-use planning of Suzhou,and gives prospects for future research.